René-Jean Essiambre
Bell Labs Fellow
Past-President of the IEEE Photonics Society (2022-2023)

René-Jean Essiambre was born on March 26 1967 in Tourelle, a small remote fisherman village in eastern Québec, Canada. He is the last child of a family of seven. He grew up enjoying outdoor activities such as biking, running, riding snowmobiles, fishing, hunting and playing several team sports such as soccer and hockey. During his childhood, he was captivated and very much enjoyed learning mathematics and physics.

Kei May Lau
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, China

Kei May Lau is a Research Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST). She received her degrees from the University of Minnesota and Rice University and served as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst before joining HKUST in the summer of 2000. Lau is a Fellow of the IEEE, Optica (formerly OSA), and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences. She was also a recipient of the IPRM award, IET J J Thomson medal for Electronics, Optica Nick Holonyak Jr. Award, IEEE Photonics Society Aron Kressel Award, US National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Awards for Women (FAW) Scientists and Engineers, and Hong Kong Croucher Senior Research Fellowship. She was an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices and Electron Device Letters, an Associate Editor for the Journal of Crystal Growth and Applied Physics Letters. Lau’s research work focuses on the development of monolithic integration of semiconductor devices and systems on industry-standard silicon and SOI substrates by MOCVD.